Follow-up of the Rio+20 sustainable development summit, the post-2015 UN development agenda, financing for development, assistance to LDCs, and collaboration on the annual UN World Economic Situation and Prospects report, are some for the areas identified for continued cooperation in an exchange of letters between the new head of the New York-based UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), Mr. Wu Hongbo, and UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi.

Officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Bank of Uganda are currently attending a 9-day workshop in Kampala on domestic debt operations and management organised by UNCTAD in close cooperation with the Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute of Eastern and Southern Africa (MEFMI).

The UNCTAD study titled "Who is benefiting from trade liberalization in Lesotho? A gender perspective" has been published. This report aims to critically assess the gender implications of Lesotho's trade-led productive transformation.

Haiti’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr. Wilson Laleau, has underlined his country’s need for simplified administrative procedures and has submitted a formal request to UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi for implementation of the UNCTAD eRegulations programme.

The Minister of International Development of Norway, H.E. Mr. Heikki Holmås, announced last Friday that Norway would carry out an audit of developing countries’ debts to Norway, and a review of the loans that Norway has made, on the basis of the Principles on Promoting Responsible Sovereign Lending and Borrowing consolidated by UNCTAD.

Delivering the keynote address at the opening ceremony of the 2012 China Overseas Investment Summit in Hong Kong yesterday, UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi urged Chinese business leaders to avoid the mistakes made by Western multinationals in Africa, and to take corporate social responsibility seriously.